IT WAS ALREADY past midnight and Sandra had finished jotting down the day’s events, or at least what she knew had happened during the day. Since the police had not yet been to see her, and she hadn’t contacted them, there was a lot she didn’t know about how Erik had been found and in what circumstances he had spent the last four days. On the other hand, what she did know was what her own day had been like, how she had been cast from extremity to extremity before finally ending up in a bed at Visby General Hospital. And that was only the start, since all aspects needed to be depicted, including her own. Now, however, there was nothing more to write about—she would have to wait for the morning and try to stay awake by other means.

She had no intention of sleeping. She was going to watch by Erik’s side, making sure that his condition didn’t take a turn for the worse and that no one other than the night staff visited the room. Of course it was possible that Erik had left the kindergarten group and the woods at Furulundsskogen under his own steam. But given the subsequent search efforts, the idea that he could have succeeded in disappearing without anyone seeing him was unthinkable. In short, he must have been helped, and in view of the timing and the threats that Sandra had received, the idea that it was anyone other than Hallin behind the disappearance seemed impossible. He had everything to gain from Erik not being found alive, and it must have upset his plans that the boy had eventually been found against all the odds.

So what would he do about it? And when? Sense told her that he ought to avoid being seen anywhere near Sandra and Erik, but emotionally she couldn’t relax. All the effort that must have lain behind everything that had happened to them lately! But it had been of no use to Hallin, since Erik was still his son. Since Erik was still alive.

A child’s life seemed so fragile. Erik was so small and vulnerable that it seemed as if he wasn’t built for survival, and yet he clearly had been. The death of such a small person felt like an impossibility, yet at the same time the exact opposite did too. The fear of what might happen if she let herself fall asleep overwhelmed Sandra in waves as she sat there, hugging her anxiety in the soft night-light.

She achieved no great success in her efforts to ward off imagining the worst. Just about anybody could pass through a Swedish hospital completely unnoticed at any time of day. They could easily enter a room and reconfigure or disconnect some tubes without anyone noticing.